The al-Barnawi faction has reportedly sought to win the people of the Lake Chad basin over by creating an economy—which can then be taxed—by providing certain incentives and financial and material support.

Outside of business and financial circles, Dangote is not well known in the United States. Perhaps that is largely because his business interests—banking, cement, sugar, salt, agriculture, and manufacturing—are centered in Nigeria and Africa rather than overseas.

While on the UN Security Council, South Africa is likely to adopt positions on issues ranging from Iran to Palestine and Israel that will be opposed by the Trump administration. There are also tariff and trade issues that will set back the relationship.

AFRICOM is taking these steps following an extensive investigation of the ambush and death of four U.S. troops in western Niger in October 2017. Coming out of the investigation is public acknowledgement for the first time that there were ten additional attacks on U.S. troops in West Africa from 2015 to 2017.

There is now more violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt than in the northeast, where Boko Haram continues its operations. Ostensibly, violence in the Middle Belt is driven by conflict between “herders” and “farmers” over land use, ethnic and religious rivalries, and (likely but hard to prove) the agendas of rival politicians.

There has been a wave of recent killings in the Middle Belt and in northwestern Nigeria, regions where Boko Haram does not routinely operate. The killings are either the result of quarrels over land use, often referred to as “herder-farmer conflicts”, of cattle rustling and other criminal activity, and reprisal attacks.